QAMYAB – THE FORGOTTEN GEMS OF BOLLYWOOD
Qamyab is our humble tribute to all those lesser-known actors, one hit wonders and junior artists who we see umpteen times but don’t know about; beyond their faces. These actors have been an integral part of Bollywood but didn’t get their due. This series is our sincere attempt to put a name to these faces, familiarize them to our readers and celebrate their achievements in life – however big or small. We believe that every artist contributes in his/her own way to the cinema’s success. Qamyab will explore the unknown lives of such actors and artists as we believe even these forgotten gems of Bollywood deserve their due recognition today.
A character actor or second lead overshadowing and garnering more attention than the main lead has occurred many times in Bollywood. Best example is Sunny Deol in Damini (1993) completely sidelining the hero, Rishi Kapoor. Laxmi Chhaya got more appreciation than the lead Asha Parekh in Mera Gaon Mera Desh (1971). Even in recent times, Tripti Dimri, appearing in a small role in Animal (2023), stole the show from the heroine Rashmika Mandanna.
Our today’s forgotten gem also received tremendous appreciation while featuring with three other powerful actors, one of them a superstar. You might have guessed him; it is Omi Vaidya and the film is the all-time blockbuster 3 Idiots (2009). Who can forget his character Chatur Ramalingam aka Silencer, which got more attention than Sharman Joshi and R. Madhavan.
Omi Vaidya was born on 10th January, 1982 in California but shared his roots in India. He was born into a Marathi speaking Goan family there. His parent’s native place being Goa; they would come to India once a year. Omi would also visit Mumbai occasionally and it was one such visit to the city of dreams, which changed his life.
Omi studied in the Los Angeles County High School for Arts and later attended University of California for two years. He then transferred to Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and graduated with honours. Omi was bitten by the acting bug right since childhood. He had participated in Marathi Natak mandals from the age of six.
After completing his graduation, Omi started working as an editor for horror and South Asian films. During this period, he also started to act in small roles on TV and commercials.
Before entering with a bang in Bollywood, Omi made his debut in the American TV sitcom Arrested Development in 2003. He had a very small role in this series. A few years later, the same casting director asked him to audition for another American TV series called The Office, where he played the character of Sadiq. This became his actual debut as an actor.
Omi went on to do few more American series like Life, Bones (both 2008), Kath & Kim and Kamen Rider- Dragon Night (both 2009). He also directed two short films Out of Time and The Desert Rose in 2007 and edited short films like Out of Time, Delusion, Bloodshed, etc between 2003 and 2008.
His five years acting stint in America had not given him the kind of success he aspired for, but his big Bollywood break was about to happen…
During a trip to Mumbai, one of his friends advised Omi to audition for the film 3 Idiots (2009), which was produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra and directed by Rajkumar Hirani. The character was of an NRI student.
When Omi appeared for the audition, he was given the lines from Vinod Chopra’s earlier hit Lage Raho Munnabhai (2006). Omi didn’t understand the lines properly and just rattled off whatever he could. He believed he had flunked the auditions and would never be selected due to his faulty Hindi.
Surprisingly, Omi got a call from Rajkumar Hirani’s office stating that he was selected for 3 Idiots as the character suited him perfectly. Amusingly, he was told not to improve his Hindi or watch Hindi films and also to gain some weight for this role.
After the film got completed, Omi Vaidya requested Hirani if he could give some interviews, but was told not to do so, as his character was to be kept under wraps completely, till the release.
During the premiere of 3 Idiots, Omi Vaidya was slightly saddened that nobody recognized him. But after the show got over, it became difficult for him to move out of the theatre. This was a similar situation faced earlier by two superstars – Rajesh Khanna of Bollywood during Aradhana (1969) and Marathi veteran Ashok Saraf during Pandu Hawaldar (1975). Both these actors were not known much at their respective film premieres but after the first show, found it difficult to get out of the theatres due to audience frenzy.
3 Idiots released on Christmas day of 2009 and became an instant hit from first show itself. Omi Vaidya won over the audience with his jealous and conceited character of Chatur Ramalingam (nicknamed Silencer) from Uganda. Chatur is a highly competitive bookworm, who wishes to top the Imperial Engineering College, Delhi. He faces difficulty in Hindi and is made fun by everyone. His highlight scene was the mugged-up speech on the annual day function, which goes horribly wrong.
Omi became a household name and most moviegoers started referring to him as Chatur. He also got the tag of 4th idiot. In most of his interviews then, he was referred as 4th idiot and there were even rumours of a movie being made by that name, featuring Omi in the lead. Omi spoke about his personal life in his interviews and showed keen interest in acting in Marathi movies as it was his mother tongue.
His second release titled Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji came a year later in January 2011. Omi played one of the leads, alongside Ajay Devgan and Emraan Hashmi. It was a romantic comedy about three men (Ajay, Emraan, Omi) staying under one roof, who are searching for true love. Directed by the National award-winning Madhur Bhandarkar, the film was moderately successful at the box office and received decent reviews.
The same year, Omi became part of big budget Desi Boyz starring Akshay Kumar, John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, Chitrangada Singh and Sanjay Dutt. Omi played a short role of a lawyer and Deepika’s fiancé, which again had comical shades.
2012 proved to be unlucky for Vaidya, when his two big budget movies – Players and Jodi Breakers – fared badly at the box office. Both the films garnered negative reviews and Omi’s performance was also criticised as being repetitive and monotonous.
After the failure of these two films, Omi disappeared from Bollywood for unknown reason. His fans felt that it could be his family commitments or Bollywood nepotism.
During this time, he became active outside India and worked in TV series like Growing Up Fisher (2014), For Here Or To Go (2015), Brown Nation (2016) etc.
In 2017, Omi Vaidya signed a Hindi film called Raita and also opened up about his five years sabbatical. Omi claimed that while he enjoyed working in Hindi films with big stars, he was not getting challenging assignments here and was instead, getting typecast in “Chatur” kind of roles. Hence, he took a break.
In the same year, Omi made a comeback to Bollywood with the psychological thriller Mirror Game, which sank without a trace. In 2018, his film Raita starring Irrfan Khan and Kirti Kulhari, released with a new name Blackmail. Omi played a pivotal role of Irfan Khan’s boss with a comic touch. Blackmail got positive response but Vaidya was overshadowed by the highly talented Irrfan.
After Blackmail, Omi again took a break from films for more than five years. He returned in 2019 with a web series called Metro Park on Eros Now. In 2023, he appeared in the US -Bangladesh joint production movie titled Mr-9: Do or Die, in which he played a scientist.
In early 2024, Omi realised his dream of working in Marathi cinema and self-directed and acted in Aaichya Gavat Marathi Bol. This was his directorial debut as well. Unfortunately, the film didn’t find much takers at the box office.
On the personal front, Omi married Meenal Patel in 2009, just ahead of 3 idiots release and they have two children.
Today, the 4th idiot is still eyeing the meaty challenging role in Bollywood. Let’s hope he gets it soon!!
© 2024 chitravedh All rights reserved.
All images courtesy Internet
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